Monday, December 31, 2007

Having an inch of frozen water on my goats troughs means it is a bit cold here in California. Granted, we don't have snow, a point Delaney, my 4 year old, harps on daily - but for us Californians anything below freezing is cold.

I did a 5 mile run this morning around the reservoir near my house - completely blanketed in fog. It was a bit eerie not knowing what would greet me around the corner, but a bit sublime too. I found myself surprised a few times by fellow humans enjoying the reservoir - hopefully I didn't embarrass myself singing too loud with my ipod tunes.

My family and I are currently traveling to Oregon to visit my family. We are spending the night in Mt. Shasta (so Delaney is getting her snow and we will have snow in Oregon). New Years Eve - aargh! I hate resolutions. Of course I want to loose weight, but here I have been running for close to a year and I think I have actually gained weight! This is the bad thing about getting older - I used to be able to dream about not eating and loose weight. Now, forgetaboutit!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

I did 5x400 m sprints today - my first attempt at speed work. I did it on my treadmill this evening since I had to work today..... and since Chuck leaves for work at 6 a.m. there is no way I can leave to go to the local track in the morning......can't leave the kidlets home alone. The nice thing about the treadmill is my pace is very controlled, however Charlotte kept trying to drop her baby doll on the treadmill so I ran in fear of tripping over the doll, banging my head on the control panel, and getting face burns from the track while I lie passed out. Luckily, that didn't happen.

Christmas was good! My husband did an awesome job with the girls presents, they were very happy and played with their new stuff all day long. I got a nice two hour nap after we unwrapped presents and ate breakfast (I was exhausted due to the late night assembly of the four foot high doll house). Chuck and I spent the afternoon working on the remodel - mostly cleaning up to prepare for today's inspection (dun, dun, dun) - the anticipation is killing me. I can't wait to get insulation in there - the house is freezing with that gaping section of uninsulationess - and our propane bill is huge.

I did get in a Christmas day run, which felt great! I took a week off to give my shin splints time to heal and it really paid off. I was able to run at my normal pace most of the three miles, and I felt so good my brain thought "what would it feel like to run an 8mph pace?" So, the last quarter mile I did it! Which is really fast for my short little legs, and I thought I was going to trip over myself, but I did it! And no pain in my shins, knee or elsewhere - I feel so strong! The hardest part of this treadmill run was that the TV wasn't working and my ipod wasn't charged.....arrgh! Luckily it was only 3.5 miles, and I had a lot to think about.

So I have officially started my training schedule for a half marathon on March 16 - the Shamrock'n Half in Sacramento. My first day of training was actually Christmas Eve, which consisted of stretching and strength. It didn't really feel like training though since it was such a light workout, no running, and the glass of wine I was drinking while I did it......

This will be my second half marathon, and I should be much faster than my first barring any injuries. Sacramento is much flatter than Lake Tahoe, and I should be able to breath better since I am at an elevation I am used to. Maybe I will be proud enough of my time to post it as a PR.

We topped off Christmas evening watching Superbad, which is a pretty good movie - although pretty nasty. I have a hard time believing that teenage boys are actually that nasty, but my husband assures me they are. Thank goodness I have girls, I can handle hormonal moodiness over degeneratenessany day. Getting past that though, the movie is quite entertaining. I love McLovin!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

I have been a little "out of sorts" lately - not really looking forward to Christmas, or anything right now. Thank goodness my husband likes to shop and he has taken care of most of the gifts for our girls, otherwise they would have a pretty sparse Christmas.

We are deep in the trenches of remodeling our master bedroom - we have actually "bumped" out the bedroom with an addition and now have a little under 400 feet of extra space that will be our master bath and a new walk-in closet. This has been sucking up most of our time, thus my excuse for not posting in over a month. I'm good at thinking of these excuses - it isn't just cuz I suck at it. The remodel has taken on a life of its own, and it keeps growing with new ideas, etc. Unfortunately, I think it has maxed out our budget at this point and we may have some loose ends that we have to hold off on until some more money comes in. It will be nice to have the extra space and the luxury bath and closet - but I am tired of sleeping on a blow-up bed in my living room in the mean time.

I did participate in the California International Marathon (CIM) at the beginning of December as a member of a relay team. That was a blast. The bad thing was I did a hip-hop class with some ladies from my work a few weeks prior, and ended up with some nasty shin splints that really slowed me down, and six weeks later are still giving me grief. Needless to say I have not been able to run as much as I should be to train for a Marathon in March. That has pushed me to the decision to just do a half marathon in March, and save my first full Marathon until fall or next year's CIM. Otherwise I will likely never heal, and I will not be happy with my performance.

Last night I watched the soup and saw this very funny clip, watch until the end :)